Hong Kong: As protests continue, will civil unrest spread to mainland China? October 1, 2014 Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney Bestinvest, says Yes. Sympathy with the Hong Kong protesters is likely to be in short supply on the mainland (residents of the territory are often seen as privileged), but the standoff presents a real dilemma for the Communist Party, which is going to extraordinary lengths to prevent the news [...]
How to overcome lack of experience in a job interview October 1, 2014 Not having any experience feels like a Catch-22. A vicious hopeless circle. You can’t get a job because you have no experience, but you have no experience because you can’t get a job. This is true whether you are straight out of university, or are changing career to a new industry. Either way, you lack [...]
Economic warfare between the West and Russia only punishes the guiltless September 30, 2014 INCREASINGLY, I am receiving requests for legal support from Russian and Western individuals and businesses who are suffering from the economic sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, and from Russia’s counter-measures. The legality of these sanctions is dubious at best. They flagrantly violate the free trade principles enshrined in the World Trade Organisation treaty [...]
Blame groupthink – not lack of regulation – for Tesco’s accounting crisis September 30, 2014 The latest fiasco at Tesco could prove an embarrassment for more than just the retailer. There appears to have been an overstatement of profit of some £250m, and some are asking questions about the company’s auditors. Of course, the full story has yet to emerge, and Tesco’s auditors did flag issues in their most recent [...]
Unleash the potential of small developers to help resolve the housing crisis September 30, 2014 JUST as with small business lending, the house-building market in Britain is deeply dysfunctional. Development is being suffocated, helping to inflate house prices and stoke the red-hot rental market. In some parts of the country, the situation is particularly grim. In the East Midlands, housing starts are barely at a third of their peak levels [...]
As Wonga profits slide, will regulatory pressure squeeze payday lenders out of the market? September 30, 2014 John Lamidey, senior partner at Arminius Associates and former chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, says Yes. The Competition and Markets Authority says that 83 per cent of payday lending customers have taken out a loan online, and 29 per cent have done so on the high street (12 per cent use both). The [...]
Beware the unintended consequences of hiking the minimum wage September 29, 2014 ED MILIBAND’S promise of an £8 per hour minimum wage by 2020 is one of the latest salvoes in the political battle over living standards. We can expect more help for hard-pressed families from the other party conferences, including the trumpeting of October’s above-inflation rise in the minimum wage. With real wages having fallen dramatically, [...]
Gutsy Osborne was right to gamble on a promise of further spending cuts September 29, 2014 ED MILIBAND made a pitch for office that was so forgettable that he forgot it himself.” That line was the key message chancellor George Osborne wanted us to take away from his party conference speech yesterday. While the Conservatives have a plan to continue to eliminate the budget deficit and create the conditions for prosperous [...]
Hong Kong: Would a failure to allow democratic reforms hurt its standing as a business hub? September 29, 2014 Nathan Gamester, programme director at the Legatum Institute, says Yes. It pays to be a democracy. Hong Kong’s protesters know this, which is why they are digging in despite violent clashes with the police and strong condemnation from Beijing’s central authorities. Some may point to China as a country that has been successful without democracy. [...]
As star fund manager Neil Woodford criticises the industry for overcharging, is he correct? September 29, 2014 Gina Miller is founder of the True and Fair Campaign and SCM Private, says Yes. We’ve been highlighting high fees, hidden charges, index cloning and other scandalous industry practices for five years, and have been actively campaigning via our True and Fair Campaign since 2012 for new legislation to end these practices. It is fantastic [...]